THE BANDELIER NATIONAL FOREST 



573 



like race, to the higher and more inaccessible regions 

 where they built those huge communal dwellings some 

 of them with hundreds of rooms, built in solid squares 

 often running up several stories with few or no entrances 

 on the ground but entered mostly by ladders through 

 roof openings like ship hatchways. 



Probably in time these failed to give them the needed 

 security and they migrated once more into the deep 

 almost inaccessible canyons where they built those wonder- 

 ful aerial cities tied to the precipitous sides of the cliffs 

 more like swallows' nests than human habitations, hun- 

 dreds of feet above the floor of the canyons. There is 

 a possibility they used all these several places of resi- 

 dence more than once returning to the open areas when 

 the pressure from their enemies was lessened or ceased. 



A very old Apache Indian once told how his people 

 lived for several years in a series of large and appar- 

 ently very old 

 cliff dwellings 

 on the lower 

 Tonto Creek in 

 Arizona. Here 

 in these secure 

 retreats the 

 Apaches took 

 refuge from 

 raids upon 

 them by other 

 Indians return- 

 ing to their 

 usual habita- 

 tions along the 

 streams when 

 the danger had 

 passed. 



That these 

 ancient people 

 grew cotton of some kind is proved by the fact that 

 coarse cotton cloth of very good weave is often found 

 wrapped about the dessicated remains of their dead 

 found in some of the ruins and in protected places under 

 overhanging cliffs where they were not reached by rain 

 or other moisture. Of domestic animals they seem to 

 have had none. The wild turkey they may have domesti- 

 cated in a way, for its bones are found in the waste 

 heaps about most of the ruins and they probably captured 

 eagles and confined them in rude cages in the village 

 just as do the Pueblos of today. 



To the average sightseer these ruins are all classed 

 under the one general term "cliff dwelling," and their 

 builders "cliff dwellers," which is probably as satis- 

 factory a name for them as can be found. 



When one remembers that every bit of food, water, 

 firewood and other material used for domestic purposes, 

 even the stones and mortar for constructing the buildings 

 themselves, including the huge rafters formed from tree 

 trunks, "vigas" the Spanish call them, had to be carried 

 up these steep trails where today one must pick their 

 way carefully lest a false step drops them into the depths 



Th( 



below, we are impressed with the position of a people 

 so hard pressed as to make their homes in such places. 

 Once a young boy, visiting for the first time one of 

 these swallows' nests high up in the side of the cliff, 

 looked down into the canyon below and remarked 

 solemnly, "Oh mother, just imagine being a little boy 

 here and somebody saying, 'Jimmie, run down and get 

 an olla of water for mother, hurry, child.' " 



Of all the ruins they have left us to explore the cliff 

 dwellings are by far the best preserved and most com- 

 plete because of their location, where in this arid region 

 the effect of the elements has been almost negative and 

 there is little or no change from their original condition. 

 Of 'Cliff' or "Cavate" dwellings there are two dis- 

 tinct types. The usual form of cliff dwellings is a 

 natural open cave or shelf formed generally by wind 

 and weather working upon the comparatively soft stone 



until an open 

 space has been 

 created of some 

 size. 



Some of 

 these, like the 

 huge shelf upon 

 which v/as built 

 the great 

 "Palace" of the 

 Mesa Verde 

 ruins in south- 

 western Colo- 

 rado, are very 

 large, the palace 

 being a city in 

 itself. Others 

 are merely one 

 room affairs. In 

 some the build- 

 ers simply erected a wall along the front of the shelf 

 or ledge and the house was done ; in others, they built 

 regular rooms with doors and windows. 



The Cavate dwellings are a type rather peculiar to the 

 Bandelier Monument region and are almost wholly man 

 made, the formation being known as "Tufa," or volcanic 

 rock and very easily worked. With this material at 

 hand the ancient builders using a piece of "Mal-pais" or 

 other Hard rock for a tool with comparatively little 

 labor bored or excavated into the walls of the canyons, 

 rooms which made admirable homes, warm in winter, 

 cool in summer and easily, defended against the enemies 

 of those days. 



The third is the "Pueblo" or communal type of 

 dwelling and all over the Bandelier monument may be 

 seen some of the finest of this class. The word "Pueblo" 

 is Spanish, meaning town or village, and was given these 

 Indians when the Spaniards first came in contact with 

 them at Zuni, Acoma and other modern pueblos. No 

 ruins in America ? Here are ruins by the hundreds scat- 

 tered over the country so thickly that you can ride all 

 day long and scarcely be out of sight of them. As for 



ANOTHER VIEW OF THE PAINTED CAVE 

 odd designs on the walls of the cave are in many colors, red, blue and black. 



